A reader of my other blog made a wonderful point a few minutes ago, and it goes like this:

For all the roaring of terrible roars about how much Stephen
Strasburg is going to ask for, and all the gnashing of teeth when the
Yankees signed Burnett, Sabathia, and Teixeira, and all the rolling of
terrible eyes when the Red Sox paid $51.1M for Dice-K, the Real Madrid soccer team just offered $131M to sign Cristiano Ronaldo away from Manchester United.
None of that $131M includes what they will actually pay the player.
That’s just what they will have to pay ManU for the right to negotiate
a contract.

Strasburg is reportedly asking for $50 million. He could blow the
record bonus out of the water by getting less than half that amount. In
light of what’s going on in other sports, why is everyone so upset with
Strasburg and Boras?